Fiddling While Rome Burns

I'm perhaps not the best person to speak on this matter, because I am in the entertainment industry myself. I believe that Stalin said "Give them bread and circuses." Although the entertainment industry is a complete luxury, it also serves as a major distraction that takes our mind off the issues of the day. Even important social commentary that finds voice through the top tier of entertainment options either gets passed over on our way to the next joke, song or scene, or gets lost in a thicket of other ideas and images that take the edge off the salient point. I heard a newscaster tell of the editorial rules governing their delivery of "truth". They said, "Whenever the camera is on me, I cannot say anything incriminating about anyone. As soon as we go to cutaway shots of fires, disasters or mayhem, I can name names and tell the more of the truth. This one disclosure speaks volumes about the entertainment value of news. If we think that there is a place to find unvarnished truth, chances are we have not yet found it. some of us are finding that the only real truth lies somewhere outside our created world of smoke and mirrors.

I have found a way to support myself on less and less income as the economy has slid into the doldrums, but the entertainment industry is still going great guns as if there no tomorrow. Of course, there have been some changes over time. I heard a recent estimate from a touring company that each semi costs about $100,000 per year to lease and operate. The days of the twenty six truck show are probably gone for good. One recent addition to the tour packages that we see coming through our mid-sized city is the "sponsorship". It seems that there is no end to products that can benefit from being placed next to the names of stars. I'm still waiting for a grunge band to show up sponsored by Unilever or a death metal show sponsored by Mormons, but oddly enough, sugary sweet treat companies love to sponsor country artists and the logos of multinational corporate brands are on the offing at the majority of shows. a friend recently said after a week-long gig that he had an uncanny urge to buy Geico insurance, eat Snickers bars and wash them down with Pepsi after a recent gig for which hundreds of yards of banners bearing those corporate logos were put up because the show was to be televised.

Little serious consideration is given to our crippling problems while we are being entertained. I think the last time I saw an attempt being made to get people involved in solving problems while entertaining them was in the eighties during and after a concert by Steve Miller. One might also include such megastar studded shows as Farm Aid or periodic concerts that seek to raise funds for discreet concerns, such as the concert for Eritrea, but the overarching problems of class, hate and war are often avoided like the plague. In fact the wrapping of performers in the flag has become a completely acceptable way to boost market share, although the very things that our flag represents can be disposed of as quickly as our attention turns to the exit signs when the show is over. Now that corporations are assumed to have "free speech", the problem will only get worse. Many in the entertainment industry realize that most of our days are spent making silk purses out of sow's ears, but the fascination people have with fame comes at a desperate price.

Remember last year? Remember how bad things were? Right now, things are even worse. If we keep on this same track, we cannot expect change to come. Insanity, it is said, is trying the same thing over and over again while hoping that the outcome will be different. If that is true, humans must be insane. The changes that are coming need to be drastic and quick if we are to have a chance at survival. According to the U.S. Census, median incomes range from under $38,000 in Arkansas to nearly $67,000 in New Hampshire can there really be justification for salaries of over a million dollars per year? The Forbes listing of the 400 richest people in America (the poorest of which still has a net worth of over one billion dollars) came out recently and many have sliced and diced the numbers in a variety of ways. The most telling way that I found to decipher the meaning behind the madness is to divide the median income into the net worth of the ultra wealthy that are listed by Forbes.Keep in mind that the top echelons of the ultra wealthy are worth over twenty times as much as the bottom tier, but to keep the numbers workable, I figured how long it would take the median wage earner to amass the fortunes that are enumerated for those at the bottom of the list. To make a billion dollars at the median income of folks from New Hampshire would take 14,925 years. For those unlucky enough to be from Arkansas, it will take quite a bit longer, 26,315 years. Keep in mind, this is only going to allow you into the billionaire club if you spend no money that whole time, or get really lucky with investments. There are quite a few younger folks entering the realm of the ultra rich, but let us say that the net worth grew over a fifty year lifespan, which a few of the old timers on the list have had. In this scenario, these folks making it to just one billion dollars of net worth are making as much as 298.5 "average" folks from New Hampshire, or as much as 526.3 "median income" people from Arkansas.

You can see why the fiddling is so important. Few would stand for being at the bottom of such a system, but by hook or by crook, the wealthy get more and those of us who try to keep our heads above water are left to fend for ourselves. at this very moment I am writing to you from a home that is owned by the bank, leased to me for two and a half times market value and if I find a way to keep my head above water for twenty more years, they will let me have it. My entire net worth was tied to this house and several years ago, I lost 1/3 of the value right off the top. The "money" was all on paper, but I went from a participant in the economy to sitting on the sidelines almost overnight. Now I am spending more time and money just staying even which leaves nothing for investment or savings. If I knew how to play an instrument, at least I would have something to do other than write about it.

The State Killing People To Teach US That Killing Is Wrong Is Not Justifiable

The case that occurred this week in Georgia blemishes our image as a shining beacon to the world, our validity as a "developed" nation, our capacity to learn, grow and to become fully human. It goes without saying that this man, who was put to death was an accused "black, cop killer" but seven of nine eyewitnesses recanted their testimony which had been the most compelling evidence in the trial that led to his conviction. Some other person took responsibility for the killing, actually confessed, we all know that two people can see the same exact event with different eyes, but for seven of nine people to agree that this was not what they saw is pretty stark information to ignore. In addition, there were over one million signatures on petitions to grant clemency because the system had gotten it wrong. If I believed in God, this would be the straw that would break the back of my faith. The people of the great state of Georgia have been sold out by their leaders and the evil demon of hatred has tainted their leaders' very souls. There is no justice in killing, especially in the hopes of being a deterrent to crime.
In Merry Old England, when the punishment for pickpocketing was hanging, the most likely place to have your purse lifted (yes, yes, I know, back then, their were no wallets, everyone carried a purse.) was at the hangings! The juggernaut of hate that drives our society to do these vile and reprehensible things to others  needs to be understood as an out-dated agent of misunderstanding based on lies and deceit. Although it is not the cheapest, best or most effective way to handle accused or actual murderers, we still get told that this killing will somehow "give closure" to those who have lost a loved one. That would be a shallow sort of love, if the loss of the loved one could be ameliorated by revenge. The only real assurance we have, when we kill to teach that killing is wrong, is multiplying the pain by a factor of two. The families and friends of the deceased are sure to feel the loss just as fully as the family and friends of the victim. Perhaps, in an odd way, they might feel it more acutely. The victim can always believe that it was all just the result of a senseless act, perhaps motivated by desperation or passion. The victims of the state all die by the hand of slow and supposedly well-reasoned and calculated horrors meted out with cold and unfeeling precision. It makes the crime committed by the state, in some ways, far more heinous. The only people who can ever feel vindicated are the people participating in the charade we call justice. It is a travesty. If there is adequate physical evidence to convict without a doubt, perhaps relegating the perpetrator of heinous acts to life in prison would be a true deterrent, perhaps not, but at least the punishment would not subject the state to committing crimes against humanity that the punishment is supposed to stop..
Especially in this case, the killing of someone when overwhelming doubt about their guilt exists degrades us all. Death to the state (any state) that believes killing is ever permissible in cases that are called into question by evidence. It is time to put an end to state sponsored terror perpetrated by our own "officials". Let this post explain, if I am ever murdered, please do not kill the person who kills me, I would like them to live with the idea of what they did to me for as long as possible. Whether or not they feel justified, they need to have the time to reflect on their actions and I certainly don't want them to have evil perpetrated on them by the state in my name. Similarly, our far flung warfare needs to stop because I'm tired of my nation killing in my name.

Look Who Is Using The Term Class Warfare!

Shame on the Republican shills for big oil, big energy and big media! In all the coverage of our President's new economic recovery plan, the lap dogs of the ultra wealthy have once again dominated the airwaves. Whoever owns this country, or whoever thinks they do, keep telling us their corporate line BS and expecting us to swallow it hook line and sinker. Well my friends, the American public just isn't that hungry. Class warfare has been going on in our country for generations. Just look back at the early attempts unions made in bringing humanity to the workplace. The American worker is still not treated much better than slaves. In some cases they are treated worse. At least slaves got three hots and a cot. After a long day of work for most employees, their paltry wages are still dwindling down to nothing as the costs of food, transportation and housing continue to outpace wages. The same plutocratic minority is in charge, the same dangerous workplaces exist and the same rampant disregard for the lives of those who create the wealth of our nation are looked upon with disdain and suspicion.

I work in a place where the wealthy elite come to play. I see it routinely. From concerts with two tiered distinctions between VIP seating and VVIP seats to the ordinary and bizarre distinctions between "going to see the game and having luxury boxes. Now how can we say there is not class warfare when the extraction of capital is practiced against the impoverished while the amazing majority of that extraction flows to fewer and fewer hands? For instance, as with the luxury boxes at our local football stadium, the five thousand dollar price per game equates to 71.5 regular seats. Don't you think that the fellow buying that sky bow knows that he is worth 71.5 times as much as the peons who are seated down below? Just as we denigrate the poor in the media, blame them for our country's economic woes and for their own lack of "education" paired with sexual and drug induced immorality, we have the nerve to make sweeping judgements about the entire class of poor people, just as we used to do with Italians, Poles and yes even the Hungarians. you know, I have a friend who is poor, and he's not like the others...

The sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that started when the news covered an ignorant and duplicitous agent of industry who has floated to the top of the shit heap of young Republicans in the House of Representatives continues to nag at my sensibilities. For one, I have been on the lower end of the income scale all of my life. I maxed out near the end of Clinton's time as President at 32K. From there, it has been a long slow fade out. I work at least as hard, at least as long and at least as often as I did back then, but the rewards are less because capitalists find ways through any rules one might put in place to protect them from their bosses. They know what they want, more money, and have the talent of being able to work around any attempt to secure a better livelihood for their workers.

That being said, I have to qualify the statement with information that is also true and to some extent growing in the minds of a sliver within the corporate world. Some employers take a different tack altogether. Some workplaces, and they are mostly in the small is beautiful movement, mostly made up of folks who were disillusioned with their own status when trying to climb the corporate ladder. They have turned to the marketplace as producers with conscience and are attempting to give their workers a better lifestyle as well as better wages and benefits. Frequently these companies realize that their workers represent whole people with needs and families that are important to them. One company here in Green Bay wanted their workforce to be educated and therefore paid tuition for up to three credits per semester for anyone employed full time. Sadly, when the company was purchased by a multinational corporation, that was one of their first cost cutting measures. small business has a chance to do the right thing, but once you get a chance to play with the big boys, your focus changes.

Of course there is class warfare going on in our country, it has been with us for centuries. to deny it is to fly in the face of fact, but it is not contained in the recovery plan which has so recently been targeted by the Speaker of the House, no, the President is trying to reign in the top dogs who have not only fared the best in our economic collapse, but who have consolidated their wealth beyond comprehension. Of course the agents that they hired to raise holy hell in Washington are squawking about it. That's their job. If they only realized how beholden to the super rich they are, perhaps they would rebel against them as surely as we all must. for without the stranglehold the wealthy have over the rest of us, change would not only be possible, but unstoppable. Through the systematic separation of goods and services from sources of capital and the estrangement of our population centers from sources of income, we have marginalized greater numbers of people than ever before. After 9-11, we had a brief moment to reassess our decisions to live further and further from where we work, where we play and from those who really matter to us. Having neglected the opportunity to make sound decisions for the future, we have mostly relegated ourselves to focusing more and more of our time and  ever more effort to support the wealthy as opposed to the poor in our country, no, in fact, the world. We are being tormented by those who would use true words being applied to false subjects and subjecting truth to the ultimate crime, being rendered as falsehood in spite of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In time, I hope we can all look back on this dark period in our history, see it for what it truly is, and guard against this sort of rhetoric and misunderstanding ever making their way into the minds of our leaders.

The top 10% of wage earners are still doing quite well and if they are not going to spend their money, then we need to find alternatives to getting the over 4 trillion dollars that they are holding hostage back into the economy. i understand that they are afraid of a black man being President, but taking their marbles and going home is simply not patriotic. Spouting lies and trying to scare the general public has been generally accepted as heinous enough to be considered terrorism. In this case, we need to seize their assets and prosecute them to the fullest extent of the law. I don't care if they hold public office or not, duly elected or not, those who inject fear and lies into public discourse are dangerous and need to be stopped. The media who claims to be even-handed in their coverage without even understanding the issues is even more dangerous and thanks to them, we have a situation in which truth or lies are less important than how stirred up we can get people. It is a sad day for democracy when the rich get whatever they want and the poor have to find their own way to cope, with little help for the government and none from their neighbors because they have fallen on hard times as well.


Corporate Welfare = Class Welfare

Over Four Trillion Dollars Languishes In The Hands Of The Wealthiest Americans

The average man and woman in America have been told repeatedly to spend, spend, spend. After 9-11 remember the admonition to get back in the skies? How we were told to go on vacation and make purchases to "Not let the terrorists win."? Well, the big boys not only didn't get that message but they have played their cards closer to the chest than ever in these difficult economic times. While the American public is fearing the "double dip" recession, the folks with the cash to get our economy going again sit pat, waiting for the prices to drop further, those of us that work for a paycheck to get even more desperate, or for the govie to extend them sweet deals that will maximize the buying power of their fortunes.

To try to understand the vast amounts of money being kept out of the economy, it helps to divide by the number of people in our country to understand how much money would be in circulation per person if the wealthy would just spend what they are holding on to. 4 Trillion (cash on hand) divided by 360 million (Americans) comes to $11,111.11 per person. Roughly half of this money is held by banks and about half is in the hands of the rest of the fortune 500 companies. My bank, who I reluctantly pay over $1,000 per month, stands to make a quarter million on my house that is actually worth less than $100,000. I have put over $30,000 into repairs so that this home will retain as much of its value as possible into the future. However, if I refuse to put money into it from now on, I will surely squander what little equity might accrue over the life of my loan on the property.
Imagine what just dividing the four trillion amongst all of us might accomplish. In our home, that would represent nearly a year free of mortgage payments. For many, this would be equivalent to half a year of working for an income. It could pay the lion's share of childcare costs so that a young family might get ahead from work outside the home rather than just "getting by".

11K per person is more than enough money to set up grid tied solar electric on every home in America, which would be a fine way for industry to begin to give back to the public for defiling the environment. I think that putting this money into  the economy would cover the difference in cost between the cars of the future and the gas guzzlers that most Americans drive today. This money has so many possible benefits that it is unpatriotic to just hold it and the whole economy hostage while the ultra wealthy wait for the stars to align and for their power to increase further. The refreshing thing that I am seeing is that the people on the bottom of the economic scale are learning to reign in their waste generation. They are buying more local, which has been the admonition of environmentalists since the eighties, and slowly, very slowly, our collective average carbon footprint is edging down. In very real ways our cutting back has led to reduced emissions from fossil fuel use and as the cost of energy continues to rise, we will be forced into making even greater efforts to reduce our bottom line.

What must it be like to never suffer from want or to desperately need to reign in our desires, or try to deny our needs? Just look to the ultra wealthy to understand what it is really like. I have recently had several republican reactionaries tell stories of folks buying lobster with food stamps. I have less problem with someone making those choices than the well-heeled financing mergers and acquisitions with corporate welfare. "Creating jobs" in the right jurisdiction can pay better than the labors of workers. This sort of government waste is not only delusional, but just plain wrong. As we know, the person in poverty overspending their food stamps gets a nearly immediate result from their less than perfect spending habits. If they want to eat lobster one day, by the end of the month they will be living on oatmeal. For the filthy rich, their bad decisions are either insurable losses or they can be assured that the government will bail them out, as long as they can claim to be "too big to fail."

Long ago, I  worked at a marina, fixing boats. We saw routinely what a pitiful price is paid for wealth. Many folks experiencing new money buy a bigger boat than they need, to show off. The first few times out they make a mistake or two and end up crashing into the dock or some other immovable object and the boat is removed from the water for service. Fees start to accrue and repairs may, or may not be made, but then as we used to say, a newish boat will come on the market for a fraction of the cost. Now, we are seeing the same thing being done with the entire economy, one of the largest on the planet. The Reagan Revolution that swept in did create a new elite. These were nearly all new money folks who sailed the ship of state into uncharted waters. The rewarding of greed and over-consumption wove the fabric of our society into a Mobius band of  wealth accrual. The dollars, rather than trickling down circulated back into the same hands time and time again. With the help of tax breaks for the rich, the combined efforts of government to "deregulate" and "privatize", the few protections that the lower classes had come to reasonably expect have been eviscerated. There is just one shattered hull lying on the shore today, it is our still steaming economy that has provided over four trillion dollars worth of cash to the suit wearing elites that decide what we will do for a living.

As with all revolutions, ours will be fought over who will decide our fates for us. If you want to tip the scales toward those who already hold the power, just stay with the fanatics who claim that industry and the economy are inherently benevolent. for those of us that want our lives back and the freedom to decide for ourselves what waters we feel comfortable sailing into, get off the couch or away from your keyboard and let others know where you stand on the issues of the day. It is not the time to be waiting in the wings, our entrance is necessary to push the story to the inevitable resolution. Forcing the hand of the ultra wealthy will not be easily accomplished. Getting many of these folks to act responsibly may turn out to be the hardest thing we have ever done as a nation. Failing to do it, however, will assure the global economic collapse that the ultra-wealthy are counting on to secure and concentrate their wealth further. Each and every gallon of fuel we purchase puts half the money we spend for it in some rich bastard's hands. The real cost of burning that fuel is approximately double when you factor in government subsidy and perhaps triple when you factor in the environmental damage associated with mining, refining, fabrication, assembly and distribution of the vehicles and their fuels.

Creating sustainability is well-worth whatever effort we expend to get it. once established, sustainable lifestyles pay back infinite rewards. Imagine, a world of abundance and distributed wealth, not the one we have in which the top 400 folks (calling them wage earners is an obscene lie) in our country make as much each year as 160 million of the rest of us. Imagine a world in which the air and water are not tainted with industrial waste. A world in which cancer rates are dropping rather than rising. A world where education and the wisdom of the aged are revered rather than made to be to scapegoat for those who want to extract more cash for themselves. As I have said before, and thank-you John Lennon, "You may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one." I am trying to resist the urge to decorate my car with bumper stickers, but the sentiments of one in particular has been resonating for months, perhaps even years. "The cost of apathy is to be ruled by evil men."-Plato

Of course, if you don't get a bit depressed from time to time, or angry, you are not paying attention. What is necessary now is the wholesale opposition to more of the same when it comes to attempts to solve problems. austerity on the part of government in the face of hard times never works. Cutting back can work within the microcosm of the home, but on a national scale, it only degrades the opportunities for individuals to thrive. rather than cuts, our nation should be spending. To balance the books, we need to tap the unbridled wealth that has accrued to the few during the crisis of ethics that began with Reagan. We cannot let the biggest players walk away from the table with all the marbles. when I was a child, I got in trouble with a bully once for winning all the marbles, then dividing them up and giving them away so that we could play some more. He blamed me for ruining the game. I guess rich people will always feel the same way about money as this boy did about the marbles. I'm just glad that I taught the four other boys playing in the alley that day that there is more to life than greed and if we are all willing to work together, there will always be more to share than if we let our greed obscure the truth of our community.

I speak for those who have not yet found their voice, the trees, who speak a different language and the myriad of organisms that depend on our decisions for their blossoming or demise. I hope that the words that I arrange on these topics are more easily understood than the disingenuous ones put before us by the major media outlets. Expecting the rich to tell the truth about themselves is like asking an organism to survive by eating itself. Money itself and the wealthy who pursue it are not gods. It is time for us to see through their self inflated egos and get down to the business of redistributing wealth so that we might all have enough.

Making Waves in Turbulent Times

I waited until all the hoopla about 9-11 died down for a reason. The messages that I would like to share about that day are easily ignored by those who are single minded, "patriotic", still mourning and/or delusional about not just what happened ten ten years ago but our responses to it. Like an egg beater in the ocean, I have whirred, flailed about, writhed and done my best to stir up elements of truth in the ocean of deception that surrounds not only the myth of 9-11 but the wholesale mortgaging of basic human potential that has come about because of this discreet and unique event. The proliferation of memorializing and the term "never forget" assume that the truth of what went on that morning is known, understood and that we are "protected" from this sort of thing ever happening again. The fact that the hijackers were all on terrorist watch lists but yet were allowed to all board just four planes at virtually the same time begs the questions, "Why had this sort of attack not come sooner?" "What on Earth were our anti-terrorism experts thinking?" and "Why have all the other "failed attempts" to create havoc been conceived and carried out by what seem like inept High School students in comparison?" The fact that our own inept security establishment is to blame for the event never seems to have come up.
 There are those who, with various credible evidence, believe that the whole thing was staged for maximum political capital, social control and corporate greed. I'm not enamored with this position, but only because I would like to think that our leaders can be trusted to do their best.Without 9-11, we would have saved over a trillion dollars of money, billions of hours of human potential, wasted on "security" operations perpetrated on law abiding citizens, and hundreds of millions of opportunities for constructive endeavors would have presented themselves for those who are engaged in the new layer of security that we pass through daily. I have not yet run the numbers on the post 9-11 build up of security related systems, personnel and seemingly infinite reach of the police state into our lives, but my gut feeling is that the current economic malaise is, in large part, a result of our knee jerk reaction to fallout from 9-11.
Frequent and unrelenting reminders of our "dangerous" world serve a dual purpose. For the weak of heart, they incapacitate. Like a deer in headlights, they wax apoplectic, unable to think, reason or act. Those who maintain their composure and understand the dangers of buying into this fear and insecurity can easily be labeled conspiracy theorists, or at least unfeeling, callous, unpatriotic and cold. Without a groundswell of public opinion against suspension of habius corpus, invocation of the War Powers Act, or revisionist approaches to carving our history in the minds of a nation. Tools of subjugation have become evermore debilitating, evermore deftly wielded by our oppressors and evermore misunderstood by those who are controlled by them. We have not yet surfaced from the last wave than another tragedy washes over our sensibilities, brought to us in living color and the immediacy that the 24 hour news cycle demands. That is why the hows, whys and therefores are completely ignored by the media. They are not immediate enough to be seen by the camera. The depths and subtleties of events are glossed over for the sake of immediacy. Getting into too much detail on any subject might estrange viewers. Bring up difficult questions or cause folks to get involved in solving the problems that lead up to the catastrophes that are the stock and trade of the media.
What is needed in our time is a renaissance of citizenship that realizes that freedom includes the freedom to make mistakes, but the responsibilities that fall to those who are truly free are commensurate with that liberty. We cannot beat the drum of freedom and democracy if we simultaneously deny it to out own citizens. Vast outlays of capital that are designed to protect the ultra wealthy with funds raised off the backs of the working class amount to the same unjust political systems that we rebelled against in the Revolutionary War. If not for the elaborate tapestry of "current events" we might be able to see the tsunami that is rushing toward the American Dream. The fallout from the real estate boondoggle, the jobless recovery, the destabilization of climate are all rooted in the same wrenching schism. Without a committed minority devoted to telling the truth in this age of lies, we cannot hope to avoid cataclysm. I have recently become enamored with the natural history of the salmon. They go with the flow for seven years, waiting for nature to give them some mysterious signal. No one can say what the nature of the change is, but once they are 'turned on", they fight their way home to where they were born and will not stop until they either become bear or people food, procreate, or die trying. They may not understand the spiritual aspects of their laboring against all odds for the benefit of the next generation, but we can surely learn a lesson from their fighting against all odds to do what is necessary to assure their species survives into the future.

The Coruption of Capitalism

Dawn broke grey and terrible over Green Bay on the Day I had selected to depart for my 4,280 mile bike tour of the Great Lakes Ecosystem; April First, 1987. For a period of two years I had studied the complex interrelationship between the heavy hand of human activity and the specific, known insults that have been perpetrated upon the landscape and watershed of these critically threatened inland seas. When I was age seven, I had an epiphany that every cell of my being was hydrated by water from this ecosystem, that eventually the moisture of each breath would find it's way back into the system. The very same liquid that dripped off my toe, when dipped in the Fox River running through my backyard, could potentially make it's way back to the sea through the St. Lawrence River.
In an instant, I felt that my being extended through the whole watershed, and lapped at each and every shore of these Great bodies of water. In the moment of ecstasy that the experience engendered, I resolved to pedal my bicycle around the Great Lakes to help me to understand their full extent and complexity. At that time, the alewife invasion was reaching a climax and rafts of dead fish would wash up on the shore. Knowing that the system was out of whack, that my life would be dedicated to educating the common man about ecological benefits that accrue if we change our relationships with the earth, soils, air, fire water and spirit. Even as a child I struggled with the question of how to share a message of compassion for the planet in a culture based on wreaking ecological havoc. I knew I was setting myself up for a hard row to hoe, but my inner spirit took on the challenge anyway, fully expecting to be made a martyr for my understanding and insight. I have always seen my way through hard times and heavy weather with the same intent spirit. Recently, I heard a Scandinavian say, "There is no bad weather, only bad clothes." On that historic first day out,  I suited up and after a hearty breakfast at a locally owned breakfast place, rode out of town to the north and west into the teeth of a storm that started with sleet and massive flake snow and on through eighty miles of everything Mother Earth could throw at me. When I was coming toward my aunt's house ten hours later, in Marinette, the snow was deep enough that I could not see below my knees!
This approach to life in general is the polar opposite of the way we are running our American corporate society. Whereas I took out upon a beautiful adventure into the heart of a storm, our businesses today want to capitalize on the fact that they are victims, of a bad economy or because of a few bad decisions. Whatever their sob story, the sham way of doing business that led to this collapse cannot possibly help us to find a way forward. The shift that is coming is toward sustainability, not extraction. Supportive commitment to a dream, building strong foundations for sustainability.
My adventure began from a point of knowing with every part of my being that what I was about to see would break my heart, drive home the point that Mother Earth has been raped, poisoned and sterilized for senseless greed and with exquisite deceit. American business, the Goliath economic forces that have colluded with government to keep the rest of us in slavery need to cease and desist. corporate welfare, especially the military industrial complex simultaneously suck at the teat of workers, who are the most true patriots, carrying the weight of millions on their backs! Businesses need to suck it up and spend money that will assist in raising quality of life for all Americans and instituting services and centers for capital that allow sensitivity to the local needs, issues and skills that ultimately will be put to their highest use locally. separating sources of capital from either the workers or where they are able to purchase services only adds to the toxic load on the environment caused by transportation.
Living lightly on the planet requires buying local as much as possible and utilizing shared resources cooperatively. there are tens of thousands of co-ops in America, join one, have a say in how they operate, form your own, it it patriotic and can raise quality of lives of far more folks than corporate America ever has. 

Hard Rain

My time on Earth would have been far less exquisite if not for the experience, I had today at the very end of my forty -eighth year, hearing this phenomenal Bob Dylan piece. When I was young, I was raised by what I thought to be the most cynical people imaginable. In their infinite, but supposed wisdom, they cordoned off vast areas of human experience as bourgeoisie pap, mediated fluff or politically motivated distraction. Some of their guidance was of course helpful, but other parts of their lexicon were filled with their own brand of vapid slogan shouting and half-truth. One example was my stepfather, who frequently talked about free love and really meant subjugation of as many females as possible. Much to my delight, my mother was commiserating with a young woman at the Laundromat one day about her suspicions that her husband, John, was sleeping around. See love is only free when given without the attachment of sex. Her new-found friend said that her man was married and would not think of leaving his wife for her. Strangely, her man’s name was John as well, and she asked, Andries? Well, if there had been super glue back in the sixties, it may have gotten used on his genitals that night!

All this said, there were times that I wanted to learn things that the adults in my life wanted me protected from and just as often there were things I needed sheltering from that I had to learn to deal with sooner rather than later. The first Earthday celebration was off limits because my parents said that it was all just a media ploy to distract people from the injustice being perpetrated in Southeast Asia. I was not allowed to watch any media coverage of the war because john had been accosted by newsmen while he was serving in that war, asked to act like his unit was being fired upon and to shoot off a few rounds for the camera.

Bob Dylan fell into the category of things they suspected as manufactured for the masses by the establishment. I don’t think either of my parents were educated enough to understand much of what Dylan wrote, but even more disturbing was their absolute vehemence about his inability to sing. I heard the same tripe about Woody Guthrie, Roy Orbison and Elvis, although for some reason Arlo Guthrie and Frank Zappa made the cut in our house. The stinging in my eyes that brought tears welling up out of nowhere at the sound of Hard Rain came not from the fact that Dylan can’t sing, but perhaps because he can’t sing, but was willing to enter the recording studio anyway. When each of us has something to say, the vast majority would rather hold their tongue, let someone else take center stage, or just fight the urge to speak, or sing, back down inside, hiding their light under a bushel basket. For many of these same silent ones, the prevailing sentiment of their insular sub-culture fills the void that their own ideas have left in public discourse. Ban the bomb sounds catchier than stop poisoning my children, free love sounds better than I’m a fuck machine and so on.

I understand that we all must do the best we can with what we are given, but the time has come for each of us to begin thinking for ourselves, not jumping on either the politically expedient bandwagon or the let’s overthrow the government  one either. Surely there are those who would lie and cheat and steal from the rest of us, many are powerful men with evil intent, but it is time to realize that by shirking our own responsibilities, we are cheating ourselves of a life of richness and beauty beyond words.